- Order cappuccino after breakfast is over. You will be looked at as a barbarian. Italians only drink cappuccino for breakfast!
- Order every course at a restaurant. An antipasto (starter), primo (first course), secondo (second course) with contorno (side dish), and dolce (dessert) is impossible to eat unless you have been starving for a week. Pick and choose as you please, relying on your own preferences. Contrary to popular belief, Italians do not order every course at every meal.
- Eat bread and pasta simultaneously. Instead, when you’ve finished the pasta, you can use the bread to fare la scarpetta (literally “make a little shoe”) and mop up the leftover sauce on your plate. It’s delicious!
- Try gelato in gelaterias that have extremely bright or neon flavors –the ingredients are not natural.
- Be surprised by an extra charge on your bill. Restaurants and cafés usually charge €1-2.50 per person for pane e coperto (bread and cover charge).
- Expect a lot of food for breakfast. Italians usually order just a coffee and a cornetto (croissant) with different fillings at a coffee bar. It is hard to find a place which offers a full English breakfast.
- Sit in a café, waiting for a server to bring your coffee. I mean, if you want to pay an extra €1.50 you are more than welcome to do it, but the most convenient and cheap way to drink your coffee is standing up at the bar with the rest of the Italians.
- Expect restaurants to be open for dinner before 7pm. Italians eat late; restaurants usually open around 7pm but the locals don’t show up for dinner until 8-8:30pm.
Can you name any other rules? Explore Italian cuisine while studying in John Cabot University!
Anastasiia Komarova
Communications Major
Class of 2018
Hometown: Moscow, Russia
